TerraHaus, the first Passive House-certified student residence hall in the United States, so impressed the Design Awards judges that they created a special designation called Student Housing. Built with comfort and sustainability in mind, the cozy space for 10 is a far cry from typical institutional living, they said.

The building’s orientation makes use of passive solar gain to lower space heating demands, which allowed planners to reduce the cost and complexity of the mechanical systems. This basic Passive House tactic resulted in a big payoff for the college: Space heating costs for TerraHaus are less than $300 per year ($30 per student), a big improvement from the two poorly insulated housing units it replaced, each with an annual space heating cost of about $500 per student. It’s no surprise then that two more Unity College residence halls based on the TerraHaus design are in the works.

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Jennifer Goodman is Senior Editor at BUILDER and has 17 years of experience writing about the construction industry. She lives in the walkable urban neighborhood of Silver Spring, Md. Connect with her on Twitter at @Jenn4Builder.